[Magdalen] Washington Post article on involuntary hospitalization of the mentally ill

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

I've been out of the loop for some time, but a delusion that one had lunch
with Clark Gable would not be considered grounds for hospitalization.  I'm
not sure it ought to be ever.

Leaving aside the fact that consumers will say stuff just to get a rise out
of us, or they may be kidding, the delusion of having lunch with someone is
not an indicator the the person is a danger to self or to others.

A friend of mine who has been in voc rehab from back in the days when it
was OVR once told me about a patient whose job was to operate a complex
piece of machinery. "He operates it exactly the way the voices in his head
tell him to," George told me, making sure I actually understood just what
he was saying. "And you know what? We closed his case -- 'Rehabilitated.' "

People have very unrealistic ideas of who does and who does not need to be
locked up against his or her will.  Dealt with it for thirty years. Never
really did get comfortable with it. The last year of my work I was involved
in a case where the whole staff just hated the guy, and I seemed to be the
only one who could see that he was just being him.

No matter what the professionals do, they are going to make others mad at
them.  Some want to know why someone was allowed to run around loose, and
others are furious if someone is taken off the street for some kind of
threatening behavior.

I would think that Virginia would be pretty savvy about when to commit and
when not to, but it only takes a few people with an ax to grind -- looked
up to by peers as dedicated and expert staff -- to get that wrong outlook
on someone to destroy all the checks and balances.  The lady sounds like
she might have been one of those who just rattled the wrong cage once too
often and then gave them the excuses they needed to force her to accept
their help.  If a skepticism about the validity of mental illness were a
valid indicator, Tom Szasz would be locked up. long since.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente

On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 8:34 AM, Ann Markle <ann.markle at aya.yale.edu> wrote:

> I read this series, too -- and loved it.  I hate that the New Yorker has
> such fine, deep writing on a regular basis, and comes out once a week (or
> two, on occasion).  Once a month would be plenty for so much fine writing.
> I find myself reading lots of articles about things I'm not even interested
> in (or didn't think I was), because the writing is so fine.  I have a big
> stack from the last year that I haven't had time to read yet.  Does anyone
> have any ideas for getting through them more quickly?
>
> As far as the article goes, I certainly didn't understand that there was
> any emphasis on "rounding these people up," but rather the difficult
> decisions that are made regarding standards of self-care.  But even as I
> write this, I can see Jay's point.  Someone like this woman, who is
> articulate and at least minimally compliant with treatment, is easier to
> monitor than those who "go off," don't take their meds, don't keep their
> appointments, and just get crazier and crazier, dangerouser and
> dangerouser.
>
> Ann
>
> The Rev. Ann Markle
> Buffalo, NY
> ann.markle at aya.yale.edu
> blog:  www.onewildandpreciouslife.typepad.com
>
> On Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 3:10 PM, ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > In 1981 the New Yorker ran a four-part article: Is there no place on
> > earth for me? Later published as a book. Won the Pulitzer Prize.
> >
> > Those articles changed me in profound ways. One of the things
> > that stuck with me: the protagonist telling a psychiatrist in an ER
> > that she'd had lunch with Clark Gable earlier in the day. The
> psychiatrist
> > thought she was talking about one of her friends and pronounced her
> > fit to leave.
> >
> > That and the fact that her parents continued to cash her SSI Disability
> > checks while she lived on the streets.
> >
>